Stocks slip into red before Eid holidays

Stocks slipped into the red on Thursday, the last trading day before Eid holidays, as cautious investors opted for booking profit amid ongoing corporate declarations.
Trading and official activities on the bourses will remain closed from May 1 to May 4 in line with the government holidays on the occasion of Eid-ul-Fitr, the biggest religious festival of the Muslims, officials said.
The market opened lower and the key index slumped about 43 points within the first 90 minutes of trading. However, the rest of the session recovered half of the initial losses, eventually ending nearly 22 points lower.
DSEX, the prime index of Dhaka Stock Exchange, went down by 21.97 points or 0.32 per cent to settle at 6,655, after remaining flat in the previous day.
Two other indices also ended lower. The DSE30 Index, comprising blue chips, fell 5.39 points to finish at 2,460 and the DSE Shariah Index (DSES) shed 6.45 points to close at 1,446.
Turnover, the crucial indicator of the market, stood at Tk 8.69 billion on the country's premier bourse, falling by 6.75 per cent over previous day's four-week highest turnover of Tk 9.32 billion.
Market analysts said the risk-averse investors opted for booking profit on sector specific stocks which failed to meet their expectations in the latest earnings declarations.
A good number of listed companies published their quarterly earnings and year-end dividend declarations on Thursday.
"Quarterly declarations of some stocks failed to meet the expectation that prompted the short-term profit booking tendency among the cautious investors," said International Leasing Securities.
EBL Securities said the prime bourse failed to retain the upward momentum and again slipped into red as some investors are taking a cautious stance and favoured engaging in profit booking ahead of Eid vacation.
Meanwhile, the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday withdrew the suspension of 15 authorised representatives of nine brokerage houses after the traders apologised for their aggressive sale orders.
However, the securities regulator continued monitoring aggressive sale orders by brokerage houses that minimised selling pressure to some extent, said a leading broker.
The stock market regulator on April 20 also raised the lower circuit breaker limit to 5.0 per cent from 2.0 per cent which also increased trading activities in the market in recent days, he said.
Major sectors witnessed corrections with engineering losing the most of 1.10 per cent, followed by financial institutions with 0.90 per cent, cement 0.90 per cent, pharma 0.50 per cent, telecom 0.40 per cent and banking 0.30 per cent.
Of the 380 issues traded, 241 declined, 90 advanced and 49 issues remained unchanged on the DSE trading floor.
A total number of 174,579 trades were executed in the day's trading session with a volume of 200.49 million shares and mutual fund units.
The market-cap of DSE also dropped to Tk 5,369 billion on Thursday, down from Tk 5,391 billion in the previous session.
Beximco topped the turnover list with shares worth Tk 545 million changing hands, followed by JMI Hospital Requisite Manufacturing (Tk 483 million), GPH Ispat (Tk 420 million), Unique Hotel & Resorts (Tk 292 million) and Nahee Aluminum Composite Panel (Tk 222 million).
Summit Alliance Port was the day's top gainer, posting a 9.74 per cent gain, while SBAC Bank was the day's worst loser, losing 5.92 per cent following its 'poor' corporate declarations.
SBAC Bank has recommended 3.0 per cent cash and 1.0 per cent stock dividend for the year ended December 31, 2021. Its earnings per share also plunged 46.76 per cent to Tk 0.74 for the year ended on December 31, 2021.
The Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) also ended sharply lower with the CSE All Share Price Index - CASPI -losing 138 points to settle at 19,474 and the Selective Categories Index - CSCX -shedding 83 points to close at 11,684.
Of the issues traded, 193 declined, 62 advanced and 30 issues remained unchanged on the CSE.

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